DEFIANT Surrey sub-postmasters joined thousands of their colleagues in London on Wednesday to petition against Government proposals they say will close small post offices.

Bearing placards saying "Keep your local post office for your benefit" the protesters met in Westminster and handed in a petition with more than three million signatures at 10 Downing Street.

The protest was organised because, in 2003, the Government is planning to stop benefits of any description being paid through post offices and instead wants to pay them directly into bank accounts. But sub-postmasters, who have spent money to buy the post office which they essentially run as their own franchise, say this plan will devastate them as the benefits form part of their core business.

Sub-postmistress Linda Cannon, who was part of Wednesday's protest and who runs the post office at Wood Street, near Guildford, said her business would not last if the plans went ahead.

"It wouldn't survive as we would lose about a third of our income, and unless we could find some other means to make that up, then no, we couldn't survive," she added.

Shops relying on and attached to post offices would also suffer, she continued, as people would not be drawn into them any more and would not be spending money. Referring to the Government's plans, Mrs Cannon said: "I think it's very narrow-minded and very narrow thinking."

The scheme would not only affect businesses, but rural communities, and she added that when pensioners did not turn up to collect their benefits at Wood Street, someone from her post office would go to their home to check they were all right.

Mrs Cannon said she had managed to collect a thousand signatures at her shop over the last few weeks, before she went to London on Wednesday in a coach with other Surrey protesters.

"Altogether we had a good united front," she said. "Everybody was united in the cause that that they can't do this to us." She added that other groups were represented at the rally in London, including the Women's Institute, the Mothers' Union and the Pensioners' Association.

The MP for Guildford, Nick St Aubyn, has been backing the campaign to save rural post offices and on Friday last week visited many in the area that are threatened.

He made himself available in the House of Commons on Wednesday, but as more than 2,000 people were queuing to lobby MPs, Mrs Cannon said she was unable to see him. She will be contacting him soon.

Surrey County Council has decided to lend a hand, and at last week's policy committee, David Munro (Con, Farnham South) moved an amendment, that was unanimously agreed, for the council to investigate how it could make a positive contribution to help the post offices survive.